Word for Word/Biting Words; In Slaying Terrorism, It's Good to Be Better Than Buffy

By LISA TOZZI

Published: August 4, 2002

IT has been foretold that into each generation a Slayer is born, and since 1997, that Slayer has been Buffy. What she slays are vampires -- usually on Tuesday evenings as part of U.P.N.'s primetime lineup.

What ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and her gang don't do is create plans, learn from mistakes or pause to think about what they're up against. And in these regards, they are a lot like us -- or so says Anthony H. Cordesman, the holder of the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a longtime ABC News military analyst.

In a paper titled ''Biological Warfare and the Buffy Paradigm,'' Mr. Cordesman suggests that the challenges (and shortcomings) facing the United States in the war on terrorism are not unlike those facing Buffy and company. After all, they too live under a constant threat, or at least over one: Buffy's town, the story goes, is built atop an evil portal that ''every slag wants to unlock'' so as to ''unleash hell on Earth.''

The paper has been sitting quietly at the center's Web site for months (csis.org/burke/hd/#reports), but as the United States continues to battle its own slags, perhaps it would help to become familiar with the source of Mr. Cordesman's observations. Following are some selected bits of theory from ''The Buffy Paradigm,'' paired with plot excerpts from Volumes 1 and 2 of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide'' (Pocket Books, 1998 and 2000). LISA TOZZI

Buffy Paradigm: ''[An] aspect of the Buffy Paradigm is a lack of any systematic net assessment of the overall nature of the threat. This has been equally true of the U.S. government, and its lack of any clear net assessment of the probable trends in the offensive and defensive capabilities of biotechnology.''

On the Show: ''In the episode 'Welcome to the Hellmouth,' we meet Buffy, who believes she can ignore the dangers that lurk around her. She hopes that a recent move to the town of Sunnydale and a change of school will allow her to put her slaying days behind her.''

Buffy Paradigm: ''The characters in Buffy constantly try to create unrealistic plans and models, and live in a world where they never really face the level of uncertainty they must deal with. They do not live in a world of total denial, but they do seek predictability . . . that never corresponds to the problems they face. In short, they behave as if they could create and live with the kind of strategy and doctrine that is typically developed by the U.S.''

On the Show: ''. . . Angel and Buffy have to try to stop the reanimation of a demon whose sole purpose is to cleanse the Earth of the plague of humanity.

On the Show: ''Rupert Giles, the school librarian and Buffy's [mentor], . . . acquires a new book for the Sunnydale High library -- a 500-year-old tome used to imprison the demon Moloch the Corruptor in the 15th century. The book is scanned into the computer as part of a project . . . and Moloch is released into cyberspace and begins his evil work.''

Buffy Paradigm: ''The importance of any given threat changes constantly, past threat behavior does not predict future behavior, and methods of delivery keep changing. . . . The attackers have no firm or predictable alliances, cooperate in nearly random ways, and can suddenly change method of attack.''

On the Show: ''In 'Bad Eggs,' the Gorch brothers -- two vampires who were Wild West bad guys in their mortal lives -- have arrived in Sunnydale. Buffy is busy helping research the brothers and misses health class, where the students are given eggs to care for as if they were children. But these are not ordinary eggs. They are offspring of a Bezoar, a prehistoric, mind-possessing parasite that lives under the school. Buffy's attempts to slay the Bezoar are interrupted by the Gorch brothers deciding to attack.''

Buffy Paradigm: ''It is never clear whether the threat is internal, from an individual or from an outside organization.''

On the Show: ''Despite Giles's warnings, Buffy decides to take advantage of [a] lull. She is invited to a fraternity party at a local college by an older boy named Tom. . . . Unfortunately, the fraternity worships a demon known as Machida and once a year has to sacrifice three teenage girls to it. Buffy is on the sacrificial menu.''

Buffy Paradigm: ''The more certain and deterministic an expert is at the start, the more wrong they turn out to be in practice.''

''One of Buffy's constant problems is that demons are more lethal than vampires, and simple-minded as this may be, it illustrates the point that some weapons of mass destruction are far more lethal than others.''

On the Show: ''Buffy suspects Claw, a vampire whose hand has been replaced by sharp implements, as the culprit in her biology teacher's murder. But [she] is surprised when she sees that very vampire whimper and flee at the sight of . . . a creature who kidnaps male virgins with the intent of mating with them and then killing them.''

Buffy Paradigm: ''The effectiveness of any program may be determined by its weakest and/or most expensive link, [and] once again, the Buffy Paradigm is not without insight. Anyone on the show can call loudly for action. Developing an affordable and well-justified program proves to be an entirely different matter.''

On the Show: ''A very old and powerful vampire . . . wishes to unleash the Anointed One, a small boy created to be a primary weapon against Buffy. Through a series of events, Giles recognizes that there is this . . . danger and warns Buffy to be on alert, but the teen wants to go out on a date with dreamy Owen Thurman, a quiet student who likes Emily Dickinson.''

Buffy Paradigm: ''All efforts at planning a coherent strategy collapse in the face of tactical necessity and the need to deal with unexpected facts on the ground.''

On the Show: ''Buffy just wants to have a normal Thanksgiving with the people she loves, but when her friend Xander accidentally releases a Native American vengeance spirit, . . . she ends up having to do battle with ancient warriors who cannot be killed with [the] normal tools of the trade.''

Buffy Paradigm: ''The past . . . is unlikely to be a representative prologue of the future, and once again the constant flow of unpredictable and somewhat irrational scenarios on Buffy may be more realistic than a great deal of the deterministic planning going on in and for the U.S. government.''

On the Show: Refer to ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'' Seasons 1 to 6.

Photo: So Buffy and the United States wage wars on terror. Should we be comparing notes? (Richard Cartwright/WB)